Rajan Krishnan

Rajan M. Krishnan was born 1967, in Thrissur district, Kerala, a state in southern India. Krishnan completed his B.A. economics from Calicut University, Kerala,(1989), BFA Paintings from Govt. College of Fine arts, Thiruvanthapuram,(1994) and MFA Painting from Faculty of fine Arts, M.S. university, Baroda (1996). Krishnan has been awarded the Kerala Lalita kala Akademi award (2001).

Krishnan has had Solo shows: "Little Black Drawings", at Kashi Art Gallery, Kochi (2004); ENROUTE, Bombay Art Gallery,(2006). He has participated in many group shows during the years 1997 - 2005,such as "Gift for India", by SAHMAT, Ravindra Bhavan, New Delhi,(1997); Miniature Format Show, Gallery Sans Tache, Mumbai (1998); Annual Show, Kerala Lalita kala Akademi, Durbar Hall art center, Kochi (2001); Cross Currents, Daira Centre for Art & Culture, Hyderabad, (2002); Tree Festival, Kashi art cafe, Fort Kochi,(2002); Regional Centre, Chennai, (2003); Double Enders, curated by Bose Krishnamachari, at Jehangir Art Gallery & Museum Gallery, Mumbai, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, Gallery Sumukha, Bangalore and Durbar Hall art centre, Kochi (2005); ‘A Compensation for what has been Lost’, Curated by Johnny ML, Artconcerns.com, (2006).

He has also participated in many art camps workshops and Art Fairs including, Vishwa Kala Sangamam, Kerala Kalapeetom, Changampuzha cultural forum, and Stone Foundation at Changampuzha Park, Edappally, Kochi,(2001); The Oberoi Art Camp by the Oberoi Group and Gallery Beyond, ( 2003) & (2004). Krishnan’s works were presented by Bodhi Art at Singapore Art Fair (2006).

One of the few Keralite artists who decided to go back home and work from there, Krishnan’s art has always been very sensitive to his environment, reflecting the socio-cultural ethos he inhabits and works from. Krishnan uses landscapes or elements from his immediate natural environment as his “principle protagonist” to express his innermost, aesthetic proclivities - whether in celebration, homage or protest. While his earlier works were more realistic, featuring land/agriscapes typical of the topography in Kerala, as of late, however, his imagery has changed significantly. Krishnan works in a mode of realism that is significantly not based on images culled from the media or photographs made by the artist; his hyper-realism instead draws from memory, impressions, nostalgia and a sense of one’s shared inherited histories. Representing a “post-agriscape”, his later works are often, bleak, fragmentary visions of a dry, sterile landscape that seems to be an echo of a time which once buzzed with activity. While his early experiences and memories of growing up in a remote village in Kerala have had a strong presence in his early works, this slightly sentimental nostalgia now seems to be giving way for a more hard hitting, cynicism that strives to document the sudden and overwhelming transitions occurring in his environment (that acts as a microcosm for the state of affairs in the country at large). These works make a clinical, examination, up close and unforgiving, at those “un-done landscapes” that
he once held so dear.

The artists lives and works in Kochi, Kerala.

Rajan Krishnan’s art has always been very sensitive to his environment, reflecting the socio-cultural ethos he inhabit and works from. Krishnan uses landscapes or elements from his immediate natural environment as his “principle protagonist” to express his innermost, aesthetic proclivities whether in celebration, homage or protest. While his earlier works were more realistic, featuring land/agriscapes typical of the topography in Kerala, of late however, his imagery has changed significantly. Krishnan works in a mode of realism that is significantly not based on images culled from the media or photographs made by the artist, his hyper-realism instead draws from memory, impressions, nostalgia and a sense of one’s shared inherited histories. Representing a “post-agriscape”, his later works are often, bleak, fragmentary visions of a dry, sterile landscape that seems to be an echo of a time which once buzzed with activity. “Instead of paddy, concrete and consumerist debris grow in these fields.” While his early experiences and memories of growing up in a remote village in Kerala have had a strong presence in his early works this slightly sentimental nostalgia, now seems to be giving way for a more hard hitting, cynicism that strives to document the sudden and overwhelming transitions occurring in his environment (that acts as a microcosm for the state of affairs in the country at large). These works make a clinical, examination, up close and unforgiving, at those “un-done landscapes” that he once held so dear.

The artists lives and works in Kerala.